Augustus Robustus

Hey gang.

This month has never been one of my favorites, if I'm being honest here. While it's not nearly as bad as, say, April - arguably my toughest month of the school year, when student misbehavior is at a year-time high and we still have a month of school left to go, and everything's wet and cold and not warm enough for excessive yard work - it's more or less the Sunday of Summer. 

Sure, you have the day off, but you can't really enjoy it because you know you have to work bright and early in the morning.

Abby braided Kris' hair one afternoon before a shopping trip. 

August honestly has two things going on that we focus on around here: Back to School for the girls and I, and Brocation, both of which will be covered in other posts. I put on blinders this time of the year, with all of my mental and physical focus devoted to setting up my classroom and getting things ready for the coming school year. And, since the school year starts somewhat early this year - I report back on the 12th for Pre-Planning, and our first day with students is the 19th (same as the girls) it's really only a week or so of actual 'summer' in August.

And I spent that entire week at work anyway, setting stuff up. So it didn't even feel like it.

Yeah, so August was basically Summer in name only - we basically went back to work right away, and consequently the month flew by. That being said, we seemed to have taken a ton of pics and video this month as the School Year quickly approached. We managed a few, end-of-summer outings and social calls, as the following highlights will illustrate, and kept pretty busy. Alayna went to a concert in Detroit, we hit up Caseville for an impromptu beach day, Kris and I went out for one, more Loons game of the season, there was River Days downtown one weekend, the Kings of the Hill held their annual Fantasy Football Draft, Abby kicked off Pom Season, and, of course, there was Brocation.

So yeah, lots to check out this month, gang - enjoy. . .

Kris took the girls Back to School shopping one afternoon while I was at work setting up my room. . .

(Alayna doesn't look thrilled about this one.)

Trevor and Sara brought their daughter Reagan up to Brass Cat towards the beginning of the month in order to get her first tattoo, based on my recommendation (Brenton, the guy that owns this place, does all my tattoos, and does as amazing job.)

Another picture of Watson, taken off Alayna's phone (obviously.)

Some weird plant Kris has growing in our garden. Not sure what the hell it is.

While Alayna takes excessive amounts of dog pics, Abby's gallery is crap like this. . .

Alayna went over to the Larson's so Danielle could do her hair one morning, and enjoyed their dog Nico keeping her company throughout the process.

Lounging in our bedroom during a weekend morning.

Alayna and Abby, driving around town with that strange Johnson kid.

Kris' office went out for Healthcare Provider Night at Dow Diamond, her boss buying all of the employees - and their spouses - tickets (and two complimentary drink tickets.)

I usually don't care for IPA's, but this one wasn't too shabby. Especially for being free.

Tonight was another Loons' 'alter-ego' night, with the team casting aside their traditional uniforms and assuming their Spicy Pickles of the North personas. 

Great night for baseball, that's for sure.

Made sure to wear my Spicy Pickles hat this evening, obviously.

Driving around town that evening with Abby, hitting up Taco Bell with the dogs (seriously.)

A kinda artsy pic of Samson, patiently waiting for Taco Bell in the drive-thru line.

Meanwhile, back at Dow Diamond. . .

The Pickles won. Not that I was really paying attention, or would've cared all that much if they had lost, but it's still kinda cool when the Home Team wins.

Later that night, once everyone was back home, unwinding with some TV in the living room with the dogs. 

The next morning, Kris and I did our usual morning routine of having a couple cups of coffee while spinning vinyl in The Study.

Kris and Alayna, out and about somewhere (pretty sure Alayna's pics like this are for social media purposes, but not exactly sure how/why.)

One Saturday morning we decided to drive out to Caseville, as the weather was going to be in the low/mid-80s and sunny, so we figured we should take advantage of this, as it was gonna be our last opportunity to do a beach day before the start of the school year. Sebastian came along with us, too.

We threw the invite out to the other families in the Inner Circle, but only the Johnsons were around to take advantage of it.

Considering how perfect the weather was today, I was surprised the beach wasn't busier.

Ordering some cheeseburgers from the local snack shack (or whatever the hell it's called.) This weekend was Caseville's annual Cheeseburger Festival, so every food joint in town was offering up specialty burgers (not that I'm complaining, they were awesome.)

(Hopefully she said 'yes.')

Kris insists on bringing along this inflatable paddle board every time we come out to the beach now, but it's pretty easy to set up, take down.

After six or seven hours at the beach, we packed up and headed back towards Midland. Traffic was a nightmare coming in and driving out of Caseville, there were tourists EVERYWHERE.

Folks queued up for burgers.

When we got home, the kids entertained themselves with some good ol' fashioned MarioKart.

They break this out from time to time, but our girls aren't huge into video games.

The Johnsons came back over later in the evening and we played some Yahtzee down in the basement (the kids eventually joined us, getting bored upstairs.) 

Broke out my lightsaber at one point. That tends to happen from time to time.

Watson tries to climb up onto the table.

I ran our Brocation playlists into AI and had it generate a compatibility report based on everyone's listening profiles. The more 'red' a space is in the chart above, the more alike someone's musical taste is. The more 'blue,' the less alike they are. Collier, Mitch and Erik have a lot of overlapping artists, as you can see here.

Alayna and one of her coworkers, holding down the drive-thru at work.

We had a crazy rainstorm one day, one that blew in and pounded us for an hour, then lifted. Mitch was at the Country Club when it started, and sent us this pic. 

Abby was coming back from a date with her new boyfriend, Kingston, when the tornado sirens started. We offered to let the kid stay indoors at our house until it lifted, but his mom was wanting him to head home immediately.

The tornado warning eventually lifted and the rains cleared, but the amount of water that was dumped on us was insane. The intersection of Swede and Sugnet collapsed as the ground underneath the road washed away, and emergency vehicles had to rush to block it off. Many side roads were completely submerged, too, like Plymouth Drive here (which a lot of the families in our tribe live on or near.)

Collier sent us this pic of the corner by his house, almost completely underwater.

Mees sent this pic to the wives thread, showing Collier attempting to unclog the storm drain across the street from his house.

Another Watson pic taken off Alayna's phone, a couple days later.

Watching some afternoon TV with the dogs in the living room.

Morgan texted us a pic of him bringing back the rental van (for Brocation) he picked from his Ford dealership in Mt. Pleasant.

Watson and a bone.

The night before the start of Brocation, some of the dads dropped off their golf clubs to Collier's so that they could pre-load them all into the trailer that we would be haling up to Marquette behind the van. This simple chore of course turned into a bunch of them having multiple beers and talking about itineraries and what not for a few hours. I skipped this 'cause I was in last-minute packing mode.

A Cannonball selfie.

Not sure what Kris is holding up here, but I think it's from the skin place she went to have a skin check done (like, to have a doctor look her over and make sure she doesn't have skin cancer or something.) All good with that, fortunately.

Some henna the kids had done. . . somewhere.

We're dealing with boyfriends a lot these days. Here's Sebastian and Alayna. . . .

And here's Kingston and Abby (up on the Ferris Wheel at the annual Midland County Fair.) We're glad that both of these girls are dating decent kids, we actually approve of both of them - super respectful boys.

Abby ended up dog-sitting again for the Angelotti's on this paricular weekend, and whenever she goes next door to check on them she gets a hero's welcome.

Alayna and a couple of her co-workers went down to Detroit for a Tate McRae concert the same weekend I was up in Marquette. Kris booked them a hotel room in a safe neighborhood and one of the other kids ended up driving, so we were okay with it.

Mirror selfie in the hotel room before they headed downtown.

Waiting in line outside the venue (I assume.)

Some nosebleed seats, but they only paid $120 I think for these, which is a good deal considering this artist is one of those trendy pop stars who charges a hell of a lot more for decent seats.

The concerts kicks off. . .

I don't know anything about this artist, but what's funny is that Alayna doesn't even really listen to this singer all that much - Abby is the one who actually loves her, so we felt kinda bad Alayna got to see her in concert and Abby didn't.

Yup, definitely a pop star. Nothing metal about this at all.

The Houghs, spread out throughout the state this evening.

While Alayna and I were away on our respective adventures, Kris and Abby hung out at home in the basement. Kris was watching a movie on the projector when Abby suddenly turned on the karaoke system and started doing stand-up comedy (which happens more often than you'd think, actually.)

Wearing my old cowboy hat (that I had when I was like 2 years old.)

Another night, another TV session on the couch with the dogs in the living room.

Abby, submitting another Pom 'homework' video for her coaches.

Not sure why Abby is sleeping in Alayna's trunk. Probably best not to ask.

The girls were all screwing around on the football field one evening after Pom Practice. Again, no idea why.

Two grumpy, old men.

Standing guard over the neighborhood from their favorite viewing post.

Samson, hanging out in Abby's room with a giant-ass Winnie the Pooh bear that she got from her friend, Nica, a couple years ago.

Downtown that Friday night for another evening out on the Commons. . . .

Kris, Mees, Courtney and Alicia

Erik and I ordered some of these cheladas at Brinstar - like a Bud Light with tomato juice and tajin seasoning along the rim. Beats drinking regular light beer sometimes.

Holty checks out some of the joint's pinball machines. . .

Facts.

Lurking on other folks' social media. . .

This is the sort of thing kids do on video calls these days. In case you were curious.

The next morning, Erik and Courtney ran Ella and Abby over to Mt. Pleasant to check out some fancy-pants cookie joint that the girls love.

Happy campers.

Again with the faces. . . .

Later that afternoon, Kris came outside to find our gazebo blown over like this. It had rained/stormed for about fifteen minutes, but I guess the wind gusts were so intense that it flipped it right over (despite concrete pavers holding it down on all four corner posts.)

What really weirded us out was that the decorative flower pots, that were ceramic, were lying on the concrete on their side, but NONE of them broke. Not sure how that happened, but we're not complaining. The two of us, with Alayna and Sebastian's help (they walked up just as we were discovering this), managed to flip it back over and there was zero damage to the gazebo. 

Abby found this RC bottle so hilarious she was crying from laughing (which she does regularly anyway, but still.)

Sebastian and Alayna, hanging out in the basement.

The girls recently re-discovered their old hoverboards from when they were in elementary school, and after I found the charger for them they were pleased to find that they still work like new (they didn't get much use when we first got them - definitely a fad purchase.)

Sebastian cruised around the house like this for awhile.

Abby's 2025 Pom pictures. . .

MHS Varsity Pom

Aaaaand a fun one.

Abby and Ella, 'hanging out' in the living room. What the f*** is up with this generation?

No idea why Ella is doing this in my kitchen.

The Kings of the Hill held their annual Fantasy Football Draft the last Sunday of the month, down at Molasses (a barbecue joint downtown on Main Street.) They have a side room that the guys reserved for this, and in the back corner of the room they had a miniature cannon set up (though not in an idea way that could possibly serve in a defensive function, pointed at the wall like that.)

Erik, Mitch and I got there first, and I started re-arranging the tables to accommodate the dozen or so dudes that were gonna be showing up. 

I no longer take part in this league - I don't care for sports, as you all know - but offer to do the sticker thing for them so that all the other guys can focus on the draft. As a token of appreciation, they've written it into the league by-laws that whoever places last place in their season has to buy all my beers during the following draft. This year Tom ended up buying all my beers, which was pretty awesome. 

The league also paid for a ton of food - wings, cornbread, burnt ends, etc. Definitely good food here.

Omkar (at right) drove all the way up from Indiana to hang out with us this evening. His dedication to the league is commendable.

Collier loads up another plate of goodness.

The drafters prepare their paperwork. With a $100 buy-in, there's a lot of money riding on every year's draft.

Morgan recently stepped down as league commissioner, and handed the reins over to Mitch, who was happy to take on the new responsibility.

Mitch congratulates last year's champion, Dave McPeak.

The league members all chipped in and bought Morgan a set of engraved glasses and whiskey stones in a nice, wooden box with the league logo on it, in commemoration of his many years as commissioner.

Alayna took a pic of this rare, full rainbow from the Taco Bell drive-thru window one evening at work.

Here's a selfie of Abby in the bathroom at Midland High. You know, in case you wanted one.

Two lazy, unemployed dogs, hanging out in the Study on Kris' day off.

In case you needed more Abby selfies in your life, here you go. . . .

Pom routine

Sebastian will randomly pick up Alayna and walk her around like this. They're an odd couple.

After a JV football game, Alayna took everyone out for some Taco Bell (because she lives there even when she's not working.)

No idea.

The Thursday of Labor Day weekend, the Larsons had folks over to hang out and kick off the four-day weekend. And, of course, high-end bourbon was involved.

Meanwhile, Alayna was at work again and took this sunset pick out the drive-thru window.

Some of the shoes by the back door. ONE pair belongs to me. This is what it's like living with all-female roommates.

In closing, here's some of Kris' flowers that are currently blooming in our backyard garden. Not sure what they are, but Kris is pretty excited about 'em.

See ya next month, gang.

- Brian